The Catastrophe in the Little House of Kate Stewart
by TuckerInLaw
Summary: Kate is suffering in her house after UNIT is gone.


She was dumb-staring at the photo standing at the corner of her bedside chest. The photo was black and white, featuring two happy faces of a father and a daughter. Her father and herself, to be precise. She was thinking over the fate of UNIT, the financial cut, the hilarity of the situation, and she couldn't make herself get back to sleep. The time was five am. She hadn't been sleeping since yesterday and her head was floating in some far far away land.

For some times, Kate would take her phone from the table and stare at it blankly waiting for PM, for somebody to call her and tell her it was emergency, UNIT to be brought back immediately, the peace of the world was just on the fingertip to slip.

There were no calls for months. She wasn't accustomed to such silence. As if when UNIT was gone all aliens thought it was no fun to invade the little humans anymore. It was a stupid thought but there was no logical explanation to it anyway.

The phone in her hand started vibrating, and just for a second a hope rose in her chest that she was needed, but it was just an alarm clock. The time was seven am.

She reluctantly got up, wiggling her fingers, her toes, stretching her spine upwards and on the left and the right. Then something cracked in her spine and a severe pain spread across her body. Damn, her young days forever gone.

She changed into her casual clothes, well, little casual if you compared them to what she had used to wear when UNIT had been still on. Jeans and stretched black polo-neck sweater, no makeup. Not something for her colleagues' eyes, mind you.

She brushed her teeth, and was about to make breakfast when she got a call from Osgood.

"Please, tell me something new, or I swear I'm gonna lose my mind!" She cried desperately.

On the other end of the line, Osgood coughed politely. "Your doorbell is broken. Is it good enough for something new?"

"How—"

"I'm outside your place. May I come in?"

Kate jumped to her door and opened it, a phone still in her hand, "Yep, you may." Osgood nodded and smiled. This Osgood was wearing a velvet coat, a precise replica of what the Twelfth one used to wear. Osgoods were constantly changing clothes to mix and puzzle everyone, so she wasn't surprised.

"I thought you haven't got breakfast so I took toasts for us."

"Lovely! Honestly, I hate cooking breakfast," Kate smiled and led her guest to the kitchen.

She put the kettle on. And sit in front of Osgood. Osgood nodded lightly and smiled politely. They ate toasts in silence, only one thought was on Kate's mind, well, the same she had over several months. And it was boiling inside her chest, nagging her mind, biting her heart and nuzzling under her chin. Until the moment she could take no more and succumbed to it.

"Everything went to pot that day."

That day was the day they had been all fired at once.

Osgood raised her shoulders. "Many of us have picked a new work. Nathan's got the job at Virgin Airways. Why don't you?"

"I'm waiting."

"So we all. But for the time we don't forget to live."

"I can't." Kate shook her head.

"You can't stop thinking what if's, can't you?"

"I can't be burden with life when the real danger comes. Just because nobody called for us doesn't mean there haven't been an accident already. Look at us. Sitting here, promised our silence with a swift motion of signature. Pretending to be blind and deaf when aliens are at our doorstep. If only my father saw what we became, what would he say? The country which put their head down and closed their eyes and plugged their ears and… wiped their mind! And for what? To cut expenses! Because Zygon crisis hasn't taught us anything."

"A very good speech. The Doctor would approve it."

"Thank you. Now when you say it, I think I'll need something stronger than tea."

"Just don't take too much. You never know when it's the day."

"Hey, do you have anything?"

"Nah. We Osgoods just do the same as you."

"Self-pitying?" Kate laughed bitterly.

"We wait for trouble." Osgood shrugged. "Someone has to."


End file.
